With the end swiftly coming into sight for Phase Four, join us in a look back at the successes, failures, loves, and losses of this most contentious of Marvel eras.
LOVE, LOSS & LOTS OF LOKIS: A PHASE FOUR RETROSPECTIVE
While it’s hard to argue that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest phase hasn’t had its fair share of issues, any claim that it’s been a failure is well wide of the mark.
The moment Phase Three came to a close with Avengers: Endgame, we all knew Marvel Studios had a huge task following up years of near-peerless long-term storytelling. Oh, and then the world went and threw a pandemic in there to make everyone’s life just that little bit harder.
It’s fair to say the fourth phase in the ever-expanding MCU had much to live up to. Almost too much really. So, with over a decade of shattered box office records and a relatively blemish-free reputation, culminating in two monumental, era-defining moments in Infinity War and Endgame, where on Earth do you take things?
Well, the answer is, as you might expect, complicated. From Black Widow to the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the path through Phase Four has been a twisting, turning one that’s left many wondering where the hell it’s all going, however, with the phase’s end near, we’re finally getting a clear picture of where things stand.
In many ways, the past year has felt like early-MCU and a time when phases weren’t a thing, a path was still being forged, and no immediate connection between films could be seen. As with those seminal days, Phase Four has had no immediate narrative thread running through it and felt, at times, somewhat chaotic.
To some corners of the internet that have grown so accustomed to interweaving characters and plots across multiple movies, this chaos has been unacceptable and an unmitigated disaster. Yet, while there’s certainly a kernel of truth to these accusations, much of this anger feels wholly misguided.
This is Marvel we’re talking about here folks. Of course there’s a purpose and a connection to it all. Although such unorganized accusations can be thrown at many Hollywood studios, Marvel really isn’t one of them, and while their machine-like precision can sometimes be to their detriment, their commitment and long-term vision is never up for debate.
The booing and bemoaning on social media has been absolutely exhausting at times, as Phase Four’s perceived lack of narrative purpose grows louder with every entry, however, look a little deeper and the connections have been staring at us all this time. While many have fixated on the phase’s narrative links, huge thematic ones have been criminally ignored.
Considering the monumental events over the last decade and a bit, and particularly how it all culminated with Infinity War and Endgame, it really is no surprise that the dark spectre of death has loomed large over Phase Four. Whether its direct ramifications of Thanos and his universal genocide, or fresh trauma from a new character, death and loss have been an ever present throughout this period.
From Black Widow’s overwhelming sense of loss to where we currently stand, this new era has gone out of its way to reflect on the sheer emotional strain many of the MCU’s characters are currently under, while fully aware of the need to move on and into the future.
It all seems so clear now, but when you start your new phase with Black Widow – a movie that reads like a feature-length in memorandum for a founding Avenger – you just knew we were heading into an serious period of mourning.
From there, we’ve taken a deep dive into a grieving mind in WandaVision; reflected on the loss of assorted loved ones for Peter Parker, Thor, and Shang-Chi; probed the previously untapped pain of Loki and his various variants, and even tackled the notion of generational trauma in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Ms. Marvel, all while the world around them reels from the sudden loss and return of half the population.
And all that before we even get to the moment I’m not entirely sure we’re ready for, when we finally say goodbye to both Chadwick Boseman and T’Challa.
Of course, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen its fair share of death by now, but the past year and a half have hit different. The fact that this has all come amidst a pandemic and a period of unprecedented loss is undoubtedly a coincidence, but it doesn’t make it any less apropos, as the biggest film franchise in the world continues to reflect our times in oddly poignant ways.
Despite all this, however, there is undoubtedly light at the end of the tunnel. This is Marvel after all. Why wouldn’t there be?
Even in its darkest moments, hope has always underpinned everything Marvel Studios have ever done, and that’s no different for Phase Four. In fact, despite the seemingly unrelenting grief of the past couple of years, this era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has offered a recurrent theme of love as strong as anything that’s come before.
Love and the need to find it even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds may sound rather corny, yet its application and presence throughout Phase Four really does draw the entire thing together, offering a balance and the kind of powerful connection that even Thanos’ jewelry collection can’t compete with.
From the Eternals and their bond with both one another and humanity at large, the reignition of Thor’s affection for Jane Foster, Marc Spector learning to love himself/Steven Grant, or Loki…umm…loving himself in weird and wonderful ways, we’ve gotten a lot of love in Phase Four, and while those looking of a narrative direction to all this obviously feel short changed, the thematic bonds of the MCU right now are as solid as they’ve ever been.
All of which leads us to where we are now.
Much like the rest of our lives, it’s been a whirlwind past couple of years for Marvel, and despite some undoubted ups and downs that have led many to declare this period a failure, it’s nevertheless grown to become the most thematically rich period in the franchise’s history, one that will no doubt end in tears when Wakanda Forever invites us to say our fond farewells to our King.